


threads of fate binding us

by wasplight



Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M, Post-The X-Files: I Want To Believe (2008), The X-Files Revival
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-22
Updated: 2016-12-22
Packaged: 2018-09-11 06:05:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8959792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wasplight/pseuds/wasplight
Summary: Scully never stopped loving him, not even a little bit.





	

She never stopped loving him. Scully made that exceedingly clear before, during, and after she left. This wasn't about divorce and they had never meant to stay apart so long, but as Scully grew more and more into her life away from him, he seemed to burrow deeper and deeper into that little house. 

That was why she left; Mulder and his restless, uneasy energy took up every square inch of the place and followed him wherever he went until Scully felt there was no room left for her. Cups of coffee in the morning, eating dinner, lying in bed at night all charged with the undercurrent of his need to be _doing something_. His passion was blinding, Scully had said once, but it was even more so when he had nothing to be passionate about. He would find little projects here and there, sure, and they helped, but not enough.

He started forgetting to take care of himself again, started sleeping in his office or on the couch. Scully did what she could, coaxing him into bed or reminding him to eat, until she felt more like his doctor than his partner. His wife. 

The X-files had saved him just as much as Scully herself, and she couldn't help him alone anymore, not when he refused to help himself. So. 

She left.

She rented a little apartment closer to the hospital and went out more with friends. She brought Mulder groceries- the practical things she knew he wouldn't remember- and on most weekends they had dinner. They chatted, about the goings-on at the hospital and the chickens back at home (and Scully couldn't keep herself from thinking of it as home, still) and Did Not talk about their relationship. 

And slowly, inevitably, they drifted. Scully can't remember when she stopped wearing her wedding ring, only that one day she realized she'd grown out of the habit, and she wants to call Mulder and talk to him but she isn't even sure when the last time they spoke was. 

At some point she began to think of her apartment as home, and of the house as only The House. At some point going back felt more like giving in, to what she couldn't put her finger on. So Scully kept the distance between them until it grew to more than the drive between one point and another, until they were worlds apart.

And then, again, the X-files saved them. 

Working with Mulder again was so easy, and it would have alarmed her just how quickly they fell back into their old rhythms as MulderandScully, FBI's most unwanted, had it been anyone else but him. She knew, as a fact, that she had never stopped loving him. Of course she hadn't, and never would- not after all they had been through.

But seeing Mulder look so alive again, finally with something real he could divert his energy into, she realized just how in love with him she still was. This was the real Mulder, her partner, her touchstone. That same energy that had pushed her away was not a cloud anymore, but a punctuation mark and it had its hooks in her. Scully didn't think she minded.

"This is how I like my Mulder."

**Author's Note:**

> These straights killed me y'all. They ruined me bro. I had to get this out of my system


End file.
